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Cal Poly Pomona in Top 10 for Boosting Students' Social Mobility

Student celebrates during commencement.

Cal Poly Pomona ranked No. 10 in the nation among the universities that help low-income students find financial success after graduation, according to the "2019 Social Mobility Index." The university is one of only four CSU campuses that has ranked in the top 20 for six consecutive years.

The "2019 Social Mobility Index" (SMI), developed by CollegeNET, measures the extent to which a college or university educates more economically disadvantaged students at lower tuition, so they can graduate and obtain jobs that pay well.

The index uses five criteria: tuition cost, the percentage of students from low-income households, graduation rates, salaries of graduates and the size of a school's endowment. Data was collected through third-party sources including Payscale, Inc. and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

"Unlike other college rankings that are aimed primarily at helping students select a college," said CollegeNET President Jim Wolfston, "the SMI helps families and policymakers determine which colleges are addressing the national problem of economic mobility."

According to the announcement, "the SMI seeks to redirect the attribution of "prestige" in our higher education system toward colleges that are advancing economic opportunity and social mobility."

Cal Poly Pomona has also recently been ranked No. 2 among public universities in the West by U.S. News & World Report, No. 14 on Money magazine's 2019 "Most Transformative Colleges List" and No. 54 on the Forbes list of "America's Best Value Colleges."